You Save Me
by feathergirl926
Summary: It was days like today that Gil Grissom was glad he had Sara Sidle in his life. Rating just to be safe... a few bad words, but not many.


_Hey guys. Here is another fic I came up with. It was 12 in the morning, so sorry if it is lame and cheesy. No beta again, so all mistakes are mine. Flashbacks are in italics. Spoilers through Burn Out._

_The song "You Save Me" belongs to (surprise, surprise) country singer Kenny Chesney. Hope ya'll enjoy it. I own nothing in this story…_

**Every now and then I get a little lost**

**My strings all get tangled, my wires all get crossed**

**Every now and then I'm right up on the edge**

**Dangling my toes out over the ledge**

**I just thank God you're here**

**'Cause when I'm a bullet shot out of a gun**

**'Cause when I'm a firecracker comin' undone**

**Or when I'm a fugitive ready to run, all wild-eyed and crazy**

**No matter where my reckless soul takes me**

**Baby you save me **

The past few weeks had been hell. And today had been the icing on the cake. He had actually felt sorry for the guy. He felt a connection with him. And then they had found the boy's body. Lucas Hanson was dead because Carl Fisher "loved" the boy so much that he didn't take the child to the hospital. After Fisher was taken away, he became all too aware of the migraine that had become too strong to ignore. He slowly made his way to his office, and closed the blinds in an attempt to block out the world around him.

He heard a light knock on the door before he heard her enter.

"Hey baby," she said quietly. "How are you holding up"

"Better now that you are here," he replied.

"Here, I thought you might need these," she said, handing him some pills. "Why don't you take those and we will see about getting you home?"

"Sounds good to me."

"Can you walk, or should I go grab one of the guys to help you?"

"I think I can make it to the car."

"Ok, let's get you home and into bed then," she said as they reached the door. Before she opened it, she kissed him gently on the lips. "I love you."

"I love you too," he said, smiling for the first time that day.

It was days like today that Gil Grissom was glad he had Sara Sidle in his life. Days when the cases became too much to bear, the crimes too heinous to cope with. He knew that, without her in his life, he would be lost. Hell, that was putting it mildly. If he didn't have her to calm him down, to hold him at night and tell him everything would work out, he would have already burnt out due to sheer frustration from not being able to find the serial killer who kept leaving the miniaturized crime scenes.

**It's hard lovin' a man that's got a gypsy soul**

**I don't know how you do it, I'm not sure how you know**

**The perfect thing to say to save me from myself**

**You're the angel that moves me like nobody else**

**And I thank God you do **

**'Cause when I'm a bullet shot out of a gun**

**When I'm a firecracker coming undone**

**When I'm a fugitive ready to run, all wild-eyed and crazy**

**No matter where my reckless soul takes me**

**Baby you save me**

He woke up the next morning with her in his arms. As he watched her sleep, he reflected on their relationship. He really didn't know what he had done to deserve her love. He knew that he was difficult at times due to his loner tendencies. He knew that she deserved someone better, someone who could treat her like the queen she was. And he knew that there was a very distinct possibility that she would realize that someday; that she could wake up one day and realize that she was spending her life with an old, cranky workaholic and leave him with a broken heart. The hold she had on his heart had scared the hell out of him, which was why he had pushed her away for so long.

But, for some reason unbeknownst to him, she stuck around. She put up with all the crap he had put her through before coming to his senses. By some miracle, he wasn't "too late." He smiled lightly as he remembered the day that had changed his life, the day that he had finally let his heart win out over his mind.

_Nick yawned for what must have been the forth time in as many minutes._

_"Ok guys, I think Nicky here is getting a bit tired, so I think we should be leaving," Grissom told the team that had assembled in Nick's hospital room the day after his ordeal. "By the way, Ecklie told us all to take the night off, so go home and get some rest… all of you."_

_After saying good-bye to Nick, the team shuffled tiredly out of his room and made their way to their respective vehicles._

_Later that night, as he tossed and turned in his bed, Grissom's mind was racing. What if they had lost Nicky? What if it had been him? What if had been Sara?_

_That last thought was what had scared him the most. It was difficult to watch Nick cry out in desperation, but it would have killed him to see Sara in that situation. He had been able to keep his wits about him when it was Nick in the coffin, but would he have been able to keep his cool if it had been Sara?_

_As these thoughts raced through his mind, something dawned on him. Life was too short to spend it worrying about the "what ifs?" He was nearly fifty and he had never truly lived. He made up his mind to amend that problem the next day. With that resolution in mind, he fell into a peaceful sleep for the first time in years._

_The next morning he awoke to the morning sun shining brightly through his window. He looked at the clock. Ten a.m. He wondered if she was awake. He reached for his phone and started dialing the familiar number. After a few rings, she answered._

_"Hello?" she said._

_"Good morning, Sara," he replied. "Did I wake you?"_

_"No," she answered. "I just got out of the shower. Is everything ok? Is Nick ok?"_

_"Everything is fine! I was actually calling to ask you something."_

_"Ok," she said with relief evident in her voice. "What's up?"_

_"Do you want to have dinner with me tonight?" There was silence on her end. "Umm, Sara, you still there?"_

_"Hmm? Oh, yeah. Dinner sounds great. Where do you want to meet?"_

_"Why don't you come over here? I've been told I can make a great vegetable lasagna."_

_"Sounds good. What time should I come over?"_

_"How about six? That will give us time to eat and to talk before we have to head to work."_

_"Ok, Griss. I will see you then. Bye."_

_"Bye Sara."_

_At exactly six p.m., Grissom heard his doorbell ring. He opened the door to find a nervous Sara Sidle on the other side._

_"Hey, come on in," he said._

_"Thanks," she replied. "Wow, Griss, it smells wonderful in here."_

_"Dinner will be ready in just a few minutes. Why don't you take a seat at the table while I grab us some wine."_

_Just as he was done uncorking and pouring the wine, the time on the oven went off, signaling that dinner was ready._

_After she took her first bite, Sara was amazed. The man could cook. Well._

_"Where did you learn to cook like this?"_

_"I am a bachelor, Sara. It was either this or eat take out all the time. Not all of us have your metabolism," he said with a smirk._

_They continued to talk comfortably during dinner. It was a short while later, when they sat down on his couch after dessert, that Sara asked the question that had been plaguing her mind all night._

_"What is this all about Griss?"_

_"What are you talking about?" he asked._

_"This! Dinner, the wine, everything. You are so confusing sometimes!"_

_"What do you mean?"_

_"I thought we had both made ourselves perfectly clear over the past few years. I asked you to dinner, you said no straight out. You push me away, tell complete strangers that I am not worth this risk…"_

_"You heard that?"_

_"Yes, I heard that! God Griss, you confuse the hell out of me. Sometimes I feel like we are getting back to where we once were in terms of our friendship, only to have you push me away again. And now this? I don't know how much more of this shit I can take," she said as she turned her head away from him to hide the tears that had welled up in her eyes._

_"Look at me," he said as he gently turned her head back toward him. When she finally looked him in the eyes, she was amazed at what she saw there… a cross between hope, fear, anticipation, and, most of all, love. "I realized something last night, Sara. I realized that life is far too short to go on pretending."_

_"Pretending what?"_

_"That I don't love you… that I don't need you in my life. I have been an idiot up until now. I have hurt the one person I care about most in this world, the one person I couldn't live without. I realized that it could have very easily been you in that coffin Sara, and that thought scared the shit out of me. I realized that life is fleeting, and that either one of us could die at any time. I don't want to die without knowing what your lips taste like against mine… to know what it is like to wake up in the morning with you in my arms… to know what it is like to have your love. Sara, I am so sorry for everything I have put you through. Please, tell me that I haven't lost you, that I am not too late. Please," he said with tears flowing down his face._

_She sat there for what seemed like eternity to Grissom. A few seconds after his confession, however, she reached out to gently touch his face, to wipe away his tears._

_"You could never be too late," she said with a small smile on her face._

_He turned to her and looker her in the eye. A few seconds later, he began to smile. "You have no idea how happy you just made me," he said as he leaned in to kiss her. What was meant to be a sweet, chaste kiss quickly evolved into one of pent up passion. A few minutes later, they broke apart. "Thank you Sara… for another chance to love you."_

_"You're welcome. Now, we have a few hours before I have to head home and get ready. I can think of several other ways to spend that time rather than talking," she said coyly, leaning in for another kiss._

_Several hours later, Grissom awoke to a strange sensation. He looked over to see Sara still curled up in his arms. 'So this is what it's like,' he thought._

**I know I don't tell you nearly enough**

**That I couldn't live one day without your love**

**When I'm a ship tossed around on the waves**

**Up on a highwire that's ready to break**

**When I've had just about all I can take **

**Baby you, baby you save me**

**When I'm a bullet shot out of a gun**

**When I'm a firecracker coming undone**

**When I'm a fugitive ready to run, all wild-eyed and crazy**

**No matter where my reckless soul takes me**

**Baby you save me**

Grissom was brought back to the present when Sara began to stir. She opened her eyes to see him staring at her.

"What?" she asked.

"Oh, nothing," he replied. "Just thinking of the day my life began."

"Oh? And when would that be?"

"The day you agreed to give me another chance… the day you agreed to let me love you. Look, Sara, I know that I tell you this all the time, but it never feels like I tell you enough. I love you. I don't know what I did to deserve your forgiveness, to deserve your love. But whatever it was, I am grateful for it. For years I didn't think I needed anyone else. I prided myself in being independent. But then you came into my life and opened up a whole other realm of possibilities. And that scared me, for a long time. But now that I know what your lips taste like against mine… I know what it is like to wake up in the morning with you in my arms and what it is like to have your love. And I wouldn't give that up for anything. If it weren't for you, for your love, I would have burned out months ago. You are my saving grace." He reached over to his night stand and opened the drawer, pulling out a small box. He opened the box to reveal a ring. '. I love you, Sara. So damned much. I know I have screwed up in the past, but I want to spend the rest of my life making that up to you. I want to spend the rest of my life loving you and making sure you know how truly amazing you are. Sara Sidle, will you marry me and make me the happiest man on earth?"

"I love you too, Gil. Of course I will marry you," she said as he slipped the ring on her finger.

It was days like today that Gil Grissom was glad he had Sara Sidle in his life.


End file.
